Blogs

PHILOSOPHICAL BASIS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING MODEL

Some students are blessed to have a gift that manifests early in their life, sparking a fierce, lifelong passion. For students who excel at sports, working to balance school and their passion can be a struggle. This article by League Network lays out seven tips for young athletes trying to juggle school and sports. Today, we’d like to share those tips, and how attending an accredited online school can help alleviate a lot of the issues student athletes encounter.

First, League Network says: Assess your priorities. This doesn’t mean prioritizing sports over school, but rather, studying your schedule much like you’d study a game tape. League Network suggests to look for subjects that come easily, and find the ones where you struggle. Having this information will shift your priorities when it’s time to study, as you’ll know where you need to spend more time. At Christa McAuliffe Academy School of Arts and Sciences, our students own their schedules in a way unheard of in traditional schools. Since studies have shown that students excel when taking no more than 2-3 classes at a time, our students do just that. While working with a Personalized Education Coach, they’re able to assess how much time they’ll need to take each course, personalizing the length based on their individual strengths and weaknesses. Great at math but struggle in science? Students may finish a math course in four to eight weeks, but map out twelve to wrap a science course, swapping a new course in once one is complete.

My Big Fat Swim Partner by Shannon 

It’s the New Year! And even in the Sunshine State, people are dealing with chilly temperatures. So you might not get excited to step your toes into the cold waters of Crystal River in Florida.

But do it! Slip on one of the wetsuits provided by Manatee Fun Tours because they payoff is well worth the cold.

Each year, from November to early March, manatees return to the warm, spring-fed waters of Crystal River. It’s also the only place in the United States where you can legally swim with manatees. It’s a bucket list excursion that everyone should consider doing at least once in their lives.

When you go, be sure to follow the rules of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service because manatees are a protected species. Included in the rules (which are listed in detail here), you cannot chase or harass these creatures. But who would want to? They are so sweet and gentle and seem just as curious about us as we are about them

There is a movement going around helping elementary-age students staunch bullying by exploring their own emotional intelligence. It’s called Roots of Empathy, and it’s taught by-- wait for it-- a baby. Baby Naomi helps teach nine and ten-year-olds how to use empathy to relate to others in an effort to stop bullying before it even begins. Along with her mother and Roots of Empathy instructor Kathy, baby Naomi attends class once a month to teach students about vulnerability, relatability, and cultivate a deeper understanding of human emotion.

Kathy, Roots of Empathy instructor, explains what makes their program so effective: “We use a baby as a vehicle to help children find the vulnerability and humanity in this little baby, so that then they can flip it back and apply it to their own experiences.” Kathy says this works because Baby Naomi is so vulnerable, inspiring an unconscious need for students to observe and protect her. “She’s more vulnerable than they are,” Kathy says, “and we have many vulnerable children in our classrooms.” This invites them to work a little harder to understand what hurts or upsets her.

This article is part of our student-curated newpaper.

"A Piece of CMASAS' History" by CMASAS student Delaney. 

Since it is the start of a new year, I thought it might be a good idea to look back at our school’s history, and what made CMASAS like it is today. CMASAS was named after a brave and influential woman, Christa McAuliffe. She was, and continues to be, the inspiration behind the school. McAuliffe was awesome enough to have the school named after her, Christa McAuliffe Academy of Arts and Sciences (CMASAS), but what exactly did she accomplish, and who was she?

Does your child avoid going to the bathroom at her school? Has he become listless, unexcited by activities that used to enthrall him? Has she become more isolated, engaging in negative self-talk? Does he get upset after receiving phone calls, texts, or using social media? If the warning bells are ringing, your child may be a victim of bullying. Bullying is a huge issue in traditional schools, and the reason many parents seek out online schools like Christa McAuliffe Academy of Arts and Sciences. For our community members who have dealt with or know someone who is dealing with bullying in any form, we’d like to offer nine steps you can take to help your child, as gleaned from Janet Lehman, parent of a bullied child and author of the article: “Is Your Child Being Bullied? Nine Steps You Can Take as a Parent”.

Many students who come to Christa McAuliffe Academy of Arts and Sciences do so because they have a dream that transcends want. This kind of high performer comes to our school for the flexibility, mobility, and personalization our program offers. He doesn’t just want to be in a band who tours throughout the country, he needs to be. She isn’t working to gain her high school diploma while simultaneously competing as a world-class gymnast because she wants to, she’s doing it because she feels deep within that she must. And both of these students are able to pursue their passions without halting or sacrificing their education because they found our personalized online program designed to fit any schedule, giving students and their families the flex time they need to travel, start careers…. and do it all before eighteen.

This blog post is a featured article from our student-run newspaper.

The holidays, a time of family, presents, traditions…and animals that fly through the sky to help deliver gifts to children around the world. But, before you stay up all night staring at the sky, waiting for a magical herd of animals to frolic by, let’s think about this phenomenon. Could reindeer actually fly? How does this whole Santa delivery system work?

First, what exactly are reindeer? Are they real, and who really are these famous powerhouses behind Santa’s sleigh? In fact, reindeer are real; they are a species of deer that typically live in regions of Siberia, North America, and Europe. These regions include arctic, subarctic, boreal, mountainous, and tundra ecosystems. Both male and female reindeer grow antlers, but the males shed them in late autumn. Female reindeer keep their antlers until they give birth. How does this all relate to Santa, you ask? All this stuff about antlers made me wonder about something. Since male reindeer shed their antlers so early in the season, and all depictions of Santa’s sleigh show reindeer with antlers, this means that all of the famous reindeer, in a surprising turn of events, are in fact female. Even Rudolph. Another fun fact, reindeer are also very skittish around humans, so it probably wouldn’t be easy to hire one to guide your sleigh.

This blog post is a featured article from our student-run newspaper

Ingredients for Gingerbread Men:

• 3 cups (390 grams) all purpose flour

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 2 teaspoons ground ginger

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

This blog post is a featured article from our student-run newspaper.

"An Inspirational Story for the Holidays" by Shannon 

In 2010, Rob Jones was deployed to Afghanistan where an IED exploded, resulting in the above-the-knee amputation of both his legs.

Story over, right? Wrong.

Rob is a Marine, through and through. So the loss of his legs did not stop him. There is a Marine saying, “Semper Fidelis,” and it means “Always Faithful.”  Rob has stayed always faithful to his mission of making his life count.  

This past year, after winning many Paralympic honors, he decided to embark on a new challenge aimed at raising awareness of veterans’ issues, and raising funds for charities that have helped him in the past. His remarkable goal was to run 31 marathons in 31 consecutive days, in 31 different cities.  

For people who have ever run marathons, they know how challenging running 26.2 miles in a day can be. Now picture doing the same thing day after day for 31 days.  

If you’re not intimidated yet, now picture doing it on prosthetic legs.

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